Black Journal; 33; Guyana: Nation Building

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We're all sisters. We don't all look alike, but we're all the same. Black and beautiful. I'm Tony Brown, executive producer of Black Journal. Black Journal is produced by Black people, two Black people, for the liberation of Black people. It is a tool in the struggle for dignity and pride in ourselves. To accomplish this, we practice Black Journalism. Black Journalism, in its search for the truth, which may frequently run counter to white journalism, is a belief in the beauty, the power, and soul of Black people.

It is a morally legitimate and tactically sound revolt of the oppressed against an oppressor. It reports on a community, psychically in a state of revolution, a revolution against the tyranny of cast and color, not the political or economic order, but a revolution nevertheless. It is a revolution as an act of hope, and a revolution which prefers truth to war, which does not seek to destroy, but to reform America. Even though Black Journal is by blacks and about blacks, its strong pro-Black stance does not necessarily mean that it is anti-white. Black pride is positive and productive. Anti-whiteness is a negation of Black dignity, which regardless of what form it takes, focuses on the strength of the white man, overlooking the strength and power of the Black man. By promoting Black pride through the use of Black Journalism and providing a platform for Black views, Black Journal is and will continue to be an antidote to a psychological self-destruction. If there's one thing Black people need is education,

not education to worship whiteness, but education that will enable us to love our beautiful Black selves. Here are scenes in Black Journalism from the coming season. So when the white man puts his intellect in you, his mind in you, you can't choose what is good for you, invariably you always choose what is good for your master. Well really, I became an addict really out of curiosity. I know if I had gone back out in the street, I would have kept myself some kind of way. Oh, did it something? Has any of the veins ever collapsed on you? Well, right down my palm, this vein collapsed I can't. I can't get off in any moment. I can't get off in any moment. Hey, where are you going? I'm going to be back, honey.

Welcome to Guyana. I'm going to be back. Welcome to Guyana. Welcome to Guyana. Welcome to Guyana. Welcome to Guyana.

Guyana, the land of waters, is a newly independent nation situated on the northeastern coast of South America between Benzauela, Brazil, and Suriname. There are over 760,000 Guyanese, about half of which are Indians from East India, and 30% black Guyanese of African descent. Formerly called British Guiana under English rule, the colonial history of Guyana dates back to the 17th century, when British and Dutch began staking claims in this area and importing African slaves to work large sugar estates. Nation-building in a developing country, new to independence and new to self-rule, means a great struggle for survival, for which little to no preparation was made by former colonizers. It means trying to solve complex problems of unemployment,

agricultural and industrial development, and establishment of foreign trade without the benefit of experience. Since its independence in 1966, Guyana has been headed by Forbes Burnham, the dynamic and determined 48-year-old prime minister, whose goals are to set his country on the road of stability, with a sound economic and political future. When Guyana proposed to become a republicans to stink from a monarchy in 1970, we decided that the date should be the 23rd of February, which was in 1970 to 207th anniversary of a revolution led by a slave called coffee. According to historians, the first significant slave revolt in the Western Hemisphere, and in the same way as he was fighting for the freedom of the slaves,

are moving into republic, represents a set determination by us to free ourselves of economic domination from North America and Europe. We have decided that our natural resources should be owned and controlled in Guyana. We've also decided that our financial resources should be mobilized and deployed in Guyana and by Guyana institutions. Further, we have sought to involve the whole population in our more practical and developmental efforts. That is why, for instance, self-help, as a way of life, has been emphasized and there's been a great deal of success. You've been able to use idle human resources in the provision of certain services which are necessary for the various communities. Self-help in Guyana, using all volunteer labor,

has become a model for other third-world nations. Here in the community of Leonora, a self-help project is underway to provide the area with a new marketplace. The old market site had served several communities, but business had to be conducted out of makeshift stalls or on the side of the road. With government assistance, the vendors formed a committee and volunteered their labor to build a new cooperative market by self-help. Among the people using this market here is about 11,000 victims and about five districts. All the vendors come just here and they serve their produce. Our task reason, general merchandise. So what we have to do here now is to make this site in other news. Then we have the building, which is something two by 40. The whole floor will be concrete and stalls will be erected by the self-helpers. While the self-help means a progress for Guyana because if we do not do self-help, well then we have nothing to get. If we do self-help, well,

it's benefited for everybody in Guyana. Now self-help in schools is the area where we've had the resounding success. Like the place of the Anora, we have the largest secondary school built in the country, and that was built in the base of self-help. Now it works this way. A community will identify a project and then a group of groups will be organized and they will then start working on the project. In many cases, if not in most cases, materials are necessary. Government provides those materials. And the people who work on the self-help project, a minimum number of hours every fortnight, receive a food package. And on this basis, we've been able to do a terrific amount, which the government could not have afforded to pay for them. And this self-help exercise represents not only a tremendous input,

but represents the utilization of what would have been otherwise idle human resources. At another level, we seek to involve the masses of the population in economic assisting from social service efforts. That is the explanation for the emphasis which we place on the cooperative. We feel that the cooperative is the means of giving the little man a significant and important say in the economic destiny and in the economic decisions of the country. In fact, our goal is in Diana, that the cooperative sector should become eventually the largest and the dominant sector in our economy. A cooperative is a business owned collectively by members who share its profits. And today, there are over 200 cooperatives in Diana,

where any seven or more people following the same business pursuits can register as a co-op with the government. The Tropican clothing factory in the village of Bucston, manufactures shirts, dashikis and shirt jacks. The workers here are members of the cooperative that owns the factory. Tropican is managed by a committee that is elected by the cooperative membership, so personnel have a say in company policy and decisions that affect them. In a few years, the workers will be able to control the shareholding through payroll deductions, and they will receive the first dividends when profits are made. Here we are having a fabric factory, a Victoria, for the making of fabrics, the purpose for building houses. I think it is a unique industry. Since we will be able to beneficially use our natural resources, and by so doing,

save the amount of money spent for importing other things into this country. It is also a means I see of helping the government solve the problem of unemployment and the situation in nation-building. We in Guyana are determined to control our natural resources because we have noted in our own country over years that our natural resources like Boxite have been removed, exploited, large profits made off them, and we have got, in the case of Boxite, about 1.32% over a period of 50 years of the profit from Boxite. You see when your natural resources are controlled, indigenously,

the decisions with respect to their development are not made by you. Boxite, the ore from which aluminum is produced, is one of Guyana's most valuable natural resources, and a vital mineral for the entire world. For 55 years, the Canadian owned Alcan Company, successfully mined Guyana's Boxite resources, taking out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of that material. As has happened countless times before in other countries under Foreign Rule, the Guyana's people hardly shared in the immense profits from the mining of their Boxite. In December of last year, we proposed to Alcan, who owned the big Boxite, undertaking here in Guyana, that we buy from the majority share in their holdings here, for which share we would pay out of future profits, in view of the profits that they had marked out of us over the years. Alcan refused and told us that so far as they were concerned,

their undertaking here was not a sale, and if we wanted to come in, we will have to raise money elsewhere from the World Bank to buy in, and that in the light of the circumstances of having marked us over the years, and they further, for allowing us to come in from their point of view, wanted such tax concessions as would have caused Guyana to get less out of their Boxite undertaking than the little it had got in the past. When their attitude became so clear, and they were so objured, we decided that instead of merely going for a majority share, which they virtually refused to give on these terms, that we would nationalize the whole undertaking completely and run it for ourselves. As history dictates, no nation can achieve true economic independence from its former colonizers,

unless it owns and controls all of its resources. Taking a bold step toward this end, Guyana nationalized the foreign-owned Boxite company of Alcan Demba Industries, this process involved a negotiated settlement with Alcan, in which Guyana agreed to pay $53.5 million over a period of 20 years for the newly named GuyBalc Company. The people of Guyana must now strive to develop their first Boxite plant with a few managerial skills they were able to acquire under colonial rule and find markets for their product. The Guyani's government also intends to develop those linkage industries, which produce goods used as inputs in the processing of Boxite, such as Costicsoda, as opposed to buying them from elsewhere. Now, if you make Costicsoda here, there are many other branch industries that develop as a result of this, because in the manufacture of Costicsoda, you get chlorine as a byproduct. Now, chlorine, we use the Costicsoda for the aluminum process, but you could use chlorine now in a wooden paper called industry.

We've got large resources of work here in this country, right? And this is only an example of the links that were accrued from this base. There are many more. We've got plenty of water, we've got water resources, we need power. This will help to develop these resources. Now, with power, you could just go on and keep on developing adding links. This is, as I see it, this is one of the reasons why the President and government they have no choice but doing this, nationalizing this, because it's the only way they could start and give this country a good opportunity for development. It's crying out for this, but how else? They've been begging for money all over the world. They got it. Do they go on and cap and hand begging? They're just nothing else to do to do it yourself. What are some of the repercussions of the nationalization of box-eyed move? Well, one important repercussion is that I understand that in the United States, the agricultural committee was meeting to discuss sugar quotas

with the President of Al-Qua. The sister company of Al-Can was very active in the lobby, so that Guyana would not get a part of the United States sugar quota. Naturally, the Canadian company which we are nationalizing or whose holding area nationalizing has been making various efforts to sabotage, allowing machinery to run down matters of that sort. And we are quite sure that we are going to be subject to a lot of pressures. But we are sure since we have the entire community, the entire population, the entire country behind us, that these pressures will not cause us to flinch and we'll win out eventually. I'm sure that we will be sure that we can run this as a very competitive level. We produce more.

We all intend to do our best. And we will be one world harder. And we will use the world for the reasons because this is our future, our children's future. In nationalization, we know it's hard work. And we prepare to work hard. Because from the inception of this plant, we've got to build this plant. We build this plant from, it was one kill. No, it's 10. We prepare to work hard. And we prepare, at all times, they can't have responsibility. We keep up with doing this. And we can do it. And because of the many amenities that could be got of nationalization, we prepared about this government 100%. Economics play an immensely important role in shaping the present and future of Guiana. Projects such as self-help and cooperatives aid the development of stability there. Bug site is just one of the country's many natural resources that include gold, diamonds, manganese, copper, timber, and many other valuable materials. Despite nationalization of Denver, however,

foreign investment and other outside assistance is still sought, as in any newly independent country. And once the Guyanese acquire more skills and get a more sound agricultural and economic base, Guiana will have taken those necessary steps for nation-building. Our position is that we would welcome capital investment in the exploitation of our natural resources. Whether it's one player condition, that it must be a consortium between their foreign investor and the government or the foreign investor and or cooperatives. And that the government and or cooperatives must hold the majority shares so as to be in a position to take the vital economic decisions. And as I had to tell, some of the two of the vice presidents of Alcan, which formally owned the box-ite undertaking here at Denver, what we are doing is something that the entire developing world is going to be doing very shortly.

Because we people in the developing countries, we black people, we colored people, and are going to be prepared forever to allow resources to be exploited for other people as benefit, and are not even getting a decent share of the results of that exploitation. Black Journal has learned that a former inmate at Soldad Prison alleged in an affidavit to George Jackson's lawyer, John Thorn,

that he was enticed to kill Jackson. The affidavit of Alan Manchino states that a guard, quote, asked me if I would care if anything might happen to George Jackson, to which I answered that I didn't care one way or another. The guard then, quote, asked me directly, if I would kill George Jackson. He said that he did not want another average cleaver. Manchino states that he refused, however, to kill Jackson. Jackson was killed in August during an alleged escape attempt from San Quentin Prison. The Black Academy of Arts and Letters recently chose George Jackson's book, Soldad Brother, as the best nonfiction work for 1970, and accepting for her son, Mrs. George Jackson, announced that she had become a revolutionary mother, dedicating the rest of her life to destroying all that which kills Black men. She said, we've been happy and clapping too long, while we watch White Men put away and kill our Black Men. I expected more from Black leadership in this country, but all we've gotten from them is excuses for what happened at San Quentin. Allowed inside Attica Prison for the first time since the bloody killing,

September 9 through 13, more than 200 relatives heard from inmates, tales of indiscriminate shootings and beatings. Mrs. Paul Lee of Rochester quoted her son Michael as telling her they shot everybody they could shoot. Many relatives refused to give their names to reporters for fear of reprisals against the inmates. Frank Lot and Inmate testified at a court hearing investigating brutality to inmates that some of the prisoners who had been identified as leaders in the rebellion were marked in chalk with an X on their backs to signify and especially heavy beating. Warden Vincent Mankousi at a court hearing said that eight guards had been relieved of duty because of their emotional condition. The rebellion at Attica ended when Governor Rockefeller ordered an armed assault. 32 inmates and 10 guards are dead. According to the New York Post, a doctor who volunteered at the prison said that more than 300 inmates were shot, many of them in the back. Reporting from Detroit, on a massacre rally, is Black Journal correspondent George Martin.

Death it is said comes in symbolic three, and the deaths in the San Quentin Attica and Detroit's north end where two teenage brothers were shot to death by a Detroit policeman on September 17. This was enough for the Black community of Detroit. On Sunday, September 19, the State of Emergency Committee was formed and this protest march and Boycott planned. Thursday, September 23, saw between five and seven thousand brothers and sisters take part in the massacre march as it became known following a story headline from the Michigan Chronicle, a Black community newspaper. At the heart of the march is the oppression and killing that is a part of all the Black communities across the country. We must therefore address ourselves to continued incarceration and frame of the annual data. Attempted murder of President and 10 citizens through the RNA arrest of Mississippi. George Jackson murder case, Attica massacre, New Orleans massacre,

Chicago Papus massacre, national economic deprivation, exploitation, and degradation of Black American citizens. These efforts of genocide, evidence on the blow of acts upon a Black American, Black Detroit will normally suspect itself to the suppression, brutality that we are now undergoing. We are serving, nor is this day that this is just beginning. We are moving for call freedom, call freedom! We will not stop until we are free in every passing of our society. Speak! The word is out, murder has got to stop in the Black community. Here in Detroit, the state of emergency hasn't been declared as probably going to be declared all over the country. This is George Martin Kennedy Square in Detroit, for Black Journal. Senior letters and requests for our free Black Journal teach brochure to this address. Black Journal, 10 km circle, New York, 10019.

This month's issue of Ebony Magazine has a cover picture of Dick Gregory's answer to genocide, Mrs. Gregory and 8 Little Gregory's. Next week, Black Journal looks at a group of Black children who are digging for Black Pride. Tonight, we dedicate the Black National Anthem to Mrs. Georgia Jackson. With everyone and the heroes of heaven, breathe with the heart of the liberty, let our renourcing rise, our happiness, please stand, let it reach us, let us go. We are the best people in the world, we are the best people in the world.

We are the best people in the world, we are the best people in the world. We are the best people in the world, we are the best people in the world. We are the best people in the world. We are the best people in the world.

We are the best people in the world, we are the best people in the world.